While deadly for baby piglets, the containment of the PED virus is quite doable if done right. In the United States, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians expects the winter of 2015 to be a benchmark period in terms of understanding what the future will look like from a PED standpoint.
The incidence of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea is down significantly in the U.S. this summer and the industry has largely recovered from the severe outbreak in mid to late 2013 and into 2014.
Dr. Harry Snelson, the director of communications with American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV), expects this winter will tell of whether or not this is going to be an endemic disease, needing ongoing attention, or whether it gives them an opportunity to continue to drive it down to a point where ultimately they can eradicate or eliminate it.
“We were very concerned about last winter and how that was going to play out and I think that immunity played into that significant outbreak that we saw in 2014, the low levels of immunity,” said Dr. Snelson. “Now we’ve built up herd immunity but we’ve also had a fairly high rate of turnover in the sow herds. Whether or not that immunity persists to a high enough degree to continue to provide protection, we’ll have to see.”
He says unfortunately the vaccines don’t seem to be quite as good at stimulating immunity in naive animals so they still rely pretty heavily on exposure and boosting immunity utilizing vaccines. So, as the herd is turned over and the immunity levels decline in the breeding herds, they’ll have to see how much virus is still out there, active, and spreading and how protected the herds are from an immunity standpoint.
Dr. Snelson says the virus survives better in cooler weather, herd immunity may be declining and the virus is still out there.
“The industry has done a good job in responding to this outbreak and I encourage continued emphasis on biosecurity.”
With a lead time of trying to prepare for the inevitable, a breakout of the PED virus in Canada, after seeing the deviation of small piglets in the U.S., Canada’s success at PED virus is high successful.
Dr. Doug MacDougald, a southwestern Ontario veterinarian is hopeful they can use Canada’s experience with PED to prepare for the next emerging disease that occurs in Canada.
It was one year ago that the first cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea were confirmed in Canada.
Since then the infection has affected an estimated two per cent of the Canadian sow herd compared to the U.S. experience where between 50 and 70 per cent of the sow inventory has been affected.
Dr. Doug MacDougald, with Southwest Ontario Veterinary Services, told those on hand for the Banff Pork Seminar, efforts to rid Canadian farms of the infection have been highly effective.
“Key factors in the sow herds are attention to piglet management, sanitation, immunization and not having that virus move around,” says Dr. MacDougald. “For the nursery or finisher sites just detailed wash, disinfect, dry has been highly effective. We’ve had almost no failures.”
He thinks PED has given Canada a glimpse of how a collaborative industry with a new emerging disease can work together and be successful on containment and elimination.
“I think it provides a blueprint and has pushed forward the vision of strong regional organizations working under a national umbrella for a Canadian swine health strategy.”
Dr. MacDougald warns as a country that exports over 70 per cent of its product, it makes us the highest risk nation in the world for any trade limiting disease.
“If we can use PED as the lever for building a more robust national swine health strategy, we’ll be better prepared for the next emerging disease that occurs in Canada,” he adds.  •
— Harry Siemens